


A Lifetime of Tomorrows

by IlanaNight



Series: A Most Unholy Union [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: M/M, Marriage Proposal, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-10
Updated: 2015-09-10
Packaged: 2018-04-20 01:20:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4768190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IlanaNight/pseuds/IlanaNight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bill's surprise for Dipper goes a bit awry, but it all works out in the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lifetime of Tomorrows

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't so much a 'sequel' as an in between bit, because the proposal was mentioned in part one. but here you go~

Dipper hadn’t seen Bill all morning, and while that wasn’t particularly unusual, it was something to note. The demon had a habit of disappearing and wandering the forests- apparently everything was more interesting in a human skin. But he usually left a note of some sort for Dipper so that the  brunet wouldn’t worry unduly.

 

This morning, there wasn’t a single note to be found, no sign of where Bill Cipher had wandered off to.

 

With a sigh, Dipper picked at the sandwich he’d made himself for lunch despondently. Rarely did the demon stay out of the house this long, because even he didn’t enjoy the sensation of hunger biting at his stomach, and Bill really hadn’t mastered the art of arranging his own meals- more than once Dipper had caught him eating frozen foods straight out of the freezer.

 

Giving up on his food, Dipper cleared his plate and wandered around the Shack once, checking all of Bill’s usual haunts and expecting to see the demon curled up reading or something. But he wasn’t to be found in the attic or the windowsill that bore his image, nor was he seated in the dark under the stairs. Mabel hadn’t seen him around, and Stan was in town on business or something.

 

That left one person to ask before Dipper was out of options, and Ford wasn’t likely to be happy with him for asking.

 

“Great uncle Ford, are you busy?”

 

Irritably, the older man looked up from his book, “Well, I _am_ reading, but it seems I’m not going to get the chance to get anywhere with that today, so no, I suppose I’m not busy.”

 

And apologetic frown touched Dipper’s face as he looked over at his great uncle, “I just wanted to know if you’ve… seen Bill around? I haven’t seen him all morning and it’s starting to worry me, he’s usually home by now and complaining about how humans need more stamina.”

 

The disgusted sigh was answer enough, but Ford took pity on the boy, seeing that Dipper was clearly concerned, “Cipher’s fine, Dipper. He came by this morning to ask me a question and then headed off into the forest. He’s a demon, nothing in that forest is going to try to hurt him. He’s probably just torturing animals or whatever it is he does for fun.”

 

“Can you stop that for five whole minutes? He’s not all awful, Great Uncle Ford! And he’s not exactly knowledgeable of all of the limits of the human body, he finds pain amusing and I don’t think he realises that enough of it will kill him. So forgive me for being worried about my boyfriend, I guess you don’t understand what it’s like to be concerned for someone you love!” Dipper’s voice raised to a shout, the cutting words spilling forth before he could stop them in his heated state.

 

He was already storming away when Ford raised a hand to stop him, but Dipper wasn’t looking his way anymore. With a frown, the old man sat down again, not bothering to pick up the book this time, “You’re wrong, kid. I understand that all too well…”

 

Grabbing a backpack, some snacks, the Journal, and a flashlight, Dipper stormed out of the house and into the forest. It was a long shot, looking for Bill in the whole forest, but Dipper preferred this to waiting around for the demon to show up again. The anxiety of that was something he did not want to think about. Besides, Bill can’t have gone too far, could he have?

 

Dipper followed the path beaten into the mossy ground, looking for signs of Bill’s presence but finding none.

 

That is, until he caught sight of charring on a tree beside the path. It was new, the bark still hot, and the sulfurous scent told Dipper exactly what-or rather _who_ \- had caused it. Bill had come this way, and something had prompted him to lash out with his powers.

 

Usually that meant anger or pain, Bill was apt to react harshly to negative emotions and set nearby objects ablaze… which meant somewhere, Bill was either enraged or endangered, and both had Dipper wrought with fear.

 

“Bill?! Can you hear me?” His voice was raised to a shout, though it shook with trepidation and sounded frightened even to his own ears, “Are you here, Bill?”

 

As if in answer, an inhuman shriek rose into the night from the forest to his left and Dipper was certain he saw another flash of blue light. Turning from the path, he ran towards the light, coming out into a clearing.

 

In the middle of the clearing stood a beast unlike anything Dipper had ever seen, black as night, so dark his eyes couldn’t quite focus on it directly, and amorphous, as if it were made of pure shadow. It rounded on him and for a moment Dipper caught sight of Bill behind it, hands ablaze with blue fire.

 

“Pine Tree, what are you doing here? Get out! I’ve got this handled, just get home!”

 

“Over my dead body, Bill, I’m not going to leave you to fight something all on your own!” Ignoring the demon’s commands, Dipper stepped further into the clearing, taking out his flashlight and brandishing it at the creature, “Just tell me what we have to do!”

 

A sigh escaped Bill, exasperation clear on his face, but he couldn’t stop long to argue as he brought the creature’s attention back to him by throwing a spurt of fire past its head, “We have to get it to ingest light. If light gets into its deepest core, it will dissolve like the shadow it is!”

 

That certainly sounded easier than it could possibly be, especially considering Dipper had no idea where the creature’s mouth was, but he nodded nonetheless and turned his flashlight on, glaring at the creature. “I’ll show you for trying to eat my boyfriend, you piece of shit!”

 

Despite himself, Bill laughed, dancing around the creature and taunting it, “Pine Tree’s not messing with you, honey. He’s _scary_ when he’s angry, almost as scary as me!” But the creature was not fond of the games and reached out with shadowy hands that grew claws, materialising just long enough to swipe across Bill’s torso and rip his shirt, blood pricking through the skin where the claws dug in, “Oh, so we’re playing _rough,_ are we?”

 

Bill’s eye inverted to red, a dark energy sparking up around him, contrasting the fire, which burned brighter around his hands as a grin split his face, “So be it.”

 

Dipper couldn’t help but shiver in fear when Bill slipped into this state of being. At his most aggravated, Bill was a being of pure chaos and could not be reasoned with. All Dipper could do was hope that this ended quickly and without too much extraneous damage… and that in his state of rage, Bill could determine friend from foe.

 

Thin fingers were already elongating into claws, nails sharp enough to split hairs as Bill threw himself at the shadow creature, hands sparking with fire. The two met with a screech and a growl, claws slashing at each other as each tried to consume the other, one with shadow and the other with flame.

 

Worry and concern warred against fear in Dipper’s face as the bloody fight ensued. Black ichor dripped down Bill’s temples into his hair, a wound splitting his forehead and leaking fluid, but the grin on his face told Dipper that it wasn’t too serious, just enough to get the adrenalin flowing. Bill’s love for pain came in use during battles, he’d told Dipper, and it seemed to be proving true.

 

The creature wasn’t faring better by any means, Bill was a ravenous demon when he had his heart set on destruction. Blue flames had scorched the creature’s sides, leaving trails of white and grey ash amidst the pitch black of its flesh, and it was shifting shapes more swiftly now, as if trying to heal, but Bill had not yet managed to coax it into opening its mouth, stitched shut by shadow.

 

Dipper couldn’t stop the scream that fell from his lips as the creature struck out, catching Bill in the middle of a step and flinging him into a tree with a sickening crunch. With a thud, the demon fell to the ground with a grunt of pain, fingers twitching and grasping at the dirt. Blue flames still flickered around his fingers, but there was no other sign that the demon was in control of the body, utterly motionless now.

 

“Bill! Bill you need to move! It’s… it’s getting closer!” And indeed the shadow creature was creeping towards the demon’s prone form, an excited humming and chirping escaping from its depths. “Bill, get up! You need to get up!”

 

But the demon did not react to his cries, did not laugh off Dipper’s concerns and reprimand him for worrying so, the demon did not twitch or show any indication of hearing him. Bill simply remained where he lied, prone and vulnerable as the creature approached him.

 

A few feet away from Bill, the creature opened its gaping maw, a split in the pitch black amorphous skin that shone with a light so bright it hurt to gaze upon and Dipper had to shield his eyes, but that didn’t stop the brunet from running forward, flashlight brandished.

 

“Stay away from him! You’re not going to hurt him anymore!” And with that, he threw the flashlight at the beast as hard as he could, trying to draw its attention, “Come over here, wouldn’t you rather play with some live prey?”

 

Enticed by the promise and enraged by the pitiful attempt to injure it, the beast turned on Dipper and he saw that its mouth was a gaping hole through the core, the light washing out of both sides. He was beginning to wish he hadn’t thrown the flashlight, he had a clear shot now and if Bill’s words were true, the foreign light would vanquish the beast.

 

A dark laughter filled the glade and the beast turned back to Bill, speaking for the first time, “You I will take later, human boy. You will know pain from loving this demon, but not until after I have feasted on his flesh and snuffed out his light. He will join me in the Shadow and his powers will be mine.” And again he was turning on Bill, close enough to touch the demon now.

 

Dipper couldn’t close the distance between himself and the beast fast enough to stop it from encompassing Bill’s body with a sickly sound and a muffled scream.

 

“Bill! No….. Bill…..” As no response came yet again and the creature visibly began to feast, Dipper fell to his knees, watching with despair as the demon he had fallen so deeply in love with was consumed by shadow.

 

Brown eyes closed, unable to witness it anymore….

 

And a shriek of unbearable volume and anguish shocked them open, blue light consuming his vision. The light burned his irises, blinding him momentarily and he tried to blink the sight back into them, curious as to the source of the new light.

 

When his vision finally returned to him, he saw a lone figure standing in a sphere of blue fire and light, hand outstretched and curled into a fist. Around the sphere, shadows were melting and fading out of sight amidst the lingering screams.

 

Shielding his eyes, Dipper stepped forward, brow scrunched. Hoping against hope, he called out to the figure, “...Bill?”

 

The sphere of light faded to a gentle glow, just enough to light the clearing as it was now nearing sunset, and the figure was no longer a shadow against the sun, but now a dimly lit face, familiar and free of wounds, smiling tiredly up at him, “Pine Tree… I was worried for a second there… I thought it was going to turn to you instead…”

 

Breaking into a run, the brunet ran at the blond demon, yanking him into a tight hug and burying his face amidst blond locks of hair, “Shut up, just shut up. I thought I’d _lost you._ What the _fuck_ did you think you were _doing?”_

 

Bill let Dipper hold him for a moment before shifting a little to look up and smile at Dipper, “I _thought_ I was going to get something to surprise you with, but you showed up and decided to spoil it all. This was originally going to be much more romantic, you know.”

 

“What on earth are you talking about? How could you _almost dying_ and getting _eaten_ **possibly** be _romantic?”_ Dipper was still holding Bill by the shoulders, wanting to feel the warmth thrumming under his hands, to know that Bill was still alive and standing before him.

 

Bill raised his left hand and Dipper saw that it was still curled into a fist, “The fight wasn’t the romantic bit, but it was a necessary evil, I’m afraid. That creature stole something of mine a long time ago, and I never figured I’d need it, but today I was proven wrong, and decided I needed it back…. For the piece of this whole thing that I suppose I will have to do now, with much less pomp and circumstance than originally intended…

 

Dipper watched with confusion as Bill sighed melodramatically before stepping away from his hand, slipping out from under his grasp and falling to one knee. The blue light was replaced with a soft gold, born of dozens of fairy lights that burst into life in the surrounding trees. For a moment, Bill looked down at the grass, charred in places by his flames, but when he looked back up to Dipper, there was a nervous smile on his face, a dancing light in his golden eye.

 

“Dipper Pines, at the expense of whatever might befall me, I have sold my soul when I did not believe I had one, to a person who does not even have need of it, for all the soul he possesses. Even so, I could not have prevented the loss if I tried, and I have no choice but to throw myself into it wholeheartedly.” Taking a pause, he took hold of Dipper’s left hand in his right, his left still clenched in a fist, “The only thing I can ask is if, in return for my heart and all of its mysteries, I may have your hand… Will you marry me and be mine, forever and always?”

 

And finally, his left hand opened, revealing a sparkling platinum ring with a trillion cut diamond inset in the band, which looked to be woven out of the metal itself. It was the most beautiful ring Dipper had ever seen and his breath caught in his throat.

 

“...Yes. A thousand times yes, Bill. In this life and the next, I am yours.”

 

The nervous smile was replaced by a victorious grin as Bill slipped the ring onto Dipper’s finger- it fit perfectly- before rising back to his full height and leaning up onto his tiptoes, curling his fingers into brown locks of hair and pressing his lips to Dipper’s, “Thank you, Pine Tree… I’ll make sure you won’t regret it.”

 

“I’d never regret this, Bill.” And Dipper’s heart was still beating a mile a minute in his chest, the adrenalin from nearly losing his boyfriend-no, his _fiance_ \- now melding with the joyous feeling of a ring on his finger and Bill’s waist under his hand, the other hand cupping the demon’s face as Dipper returned the kiss with vigour, lifting the demon off the ground, “I almost lost you, and I’m not going to let anything take you from me.”

 

Gasping at the sudden passion, Bill’s mouth widened into a grin, legs wrapping themselves around the brunet’s waist to eliminate any space between them, “And I will never let anyone or anything come close to stealing you from me, my Pine Tree.”

 

The possessive epithet was enough to have Dipper attacking Bill’s mouth again, turning and pressing the demon into the nearest tree for leverage and earning himself a low growl as he felt Bill’s fingers tug at his hair in clear pleasure.

 

For a brief moment, Dipper pulled back, trying to catch his breath while the demon panted beside him, “...What on _earth_ are we going to tell them tomorrow?”

 

Bill’s golden eye slitted open and he trailed fingers over Dipper’s face, “Nevermind that, Dipper. Live in the moment, we have a _lifetime_ of tomorrows ahead of us.” And before the brunet could worry any more, Bill’s fingers were snapping and a moment’s flash of darkness had them falling, Bill’s back now pressed into an unfamiliar mattress with Dipper hovering above him. Bill’s legs wrapped around his waist, arms pulling him down to claim his fiance’s mouth again, “And I don’t want to think about tomorrows right now.”


End file.
